REVIEW: Deadwax (demos + She's A Queen release)

A year or so ago, the band Deadwax sent me their demo to do a review, which I had then published on another blog, closed now. As their first video has reached 1000 views on youtube this last few days, I'm re-publishing this "vintage" review ;). But first, to see their video, click here. Plus check out their facebook page right here. I'll do a review for their She's A Queen later on in the week. Maybe just a few words to say that it sounds freaking good.

When I received the well-known « add me request » on myspace, I thought « oh gee, Deadwax?? That sounds like some deathcore band with obscure references. Some kind of Iron Maiden's teenage wannabe. Yet, your humble servant decided (with some new professional conscience) to click and throw an ear at the band.


Happily surprised I was when I discovered 4 young Londoners with influences as diverse as cool. Deadwax are a cocktail, a BRMC-Kasabian Mojito with some pre-1996 Oasis aftertaste. Indigo starts the whole thing and sums up everything we, French people, are unable to do: powerful yet ethereal rock n' roll. Without any doubt, the best song on their myspace. Fly starts acoustically and sounds a bit like the Kooks. The whole song just perfectly demonstrates how the band has assimilated their musical background and let you see a naughty boy attitude with a baffling capacity to write catchy tunes. I'm holding back my breath when Put Your Feet On The Accelerator starts: the song is a BRMC soundalike A pity as I expected the band to be able to keep using their influences without copying them that much.


It's with some kind of apprehension that I directly go to song #4  Burn This Town. From the first chords there's no denying Deadwax's back. If it's true that we can hear the Kings of Leon and The Stone Roses, anyone over 27 will feel like they've been brought back to their teenage years, somewhere during a memorable smoked-out binge-drinking experience in an English park during a summer exchange program in 1995. This excellent song is followed by She's Automatic that I will pretend I didn't listen out of the good impression left by Burn This Town. Maybe just a few words to say that if you forget it, it's as good as listening to it. That's also probably why it didn't get as many plays as the others. Anyway, let's move to Tearing Each Other Apart which I would say is a strange though good mixture of 1980s Manchester sound and the noughties New York rock revival. Nowhere, antepenultimate song, reminds us of the Srokes' Last Night and the Libertines who would support the Beatles in 1966. They're blowing on the long-burning ashes of Revolver, that's for sure .Finally, Home a suburbian American-emo sounding tune will join She's Automatic. One of the couple of songs that should remain b-sides if they're on to release an LP.


A well-deserved B for a band who tried to encapsulate four decades of britrock . If they hold on to their course, they could get more than some internet success.